Local trade office had close ties with World Trade Center.(300 World Trade Centers headquartered in Manhattan)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)

A small, little-known trade office in Schenectady received a lot of unexpected attention after two hijacked airliners slammed into the World Trade Center in New York City Sept. 11.

The Manhattan site was the headquarters for 300 trade centers around the world, including the small Schenectady office and two other branches in New. York: one in Buffalo, the other in Newburgh in the mid-Hudson Valley.

Each center is an independently owned franchise, whose owner pays an annual licensing fee to the World Trade Center Association in New York. Schenectady County owns the Capital Region World Trade Center franchise.

The five-year-old Capital Region office …